J. R. D. Tata
Co-founder 1945Background
Jehangir Ratanji Dadabhoy (J.R.D.) Tata served as chairman of the Tata Group from 1938 to 1991. In 1945, in the aftermath of World War II, he envisioned a company to manufacture locomotives, boilers, and heavy engineering equipment for newly independent India, incorporating Tata Engineering and Locomotive Company (TELCO) on September 1, 1945. He handpicked Sumant Moolgaokar, then Executive Director of Associated Cement Companies, to run the new company, and later championed TELCO's shift from railway components into trucks and buses as India's transportation needs grew -- a pivot that eventually made the company (renamed Tata Motors in 2003) India's largest commercial-vehicle manufacturer. His work established Tata Motors as one of the founding pillars of independent India industrial base, a legacy the company continues to invoke in its own corporate communications nearly eight decades later.